


The New Year's Resolution Mandate

by DaronwyK



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M, Holiday Fic Exchange, New Year's Resolutions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28053579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaronwyK/pseuds/DaronwyK
Summary: A silly initiative from the Ministry inspires and advance in Hermione & Severus' relationship.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 16
Kudos: 67
Collections: Hearts and Cauldrons Gift Exchange





	The New Year's Resolution Mandate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [franka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/franka/gifts).



> All usual disclaimers apply. 
> 
> Happy Holidays to Franka & everyone on the Hearts & Cauldron's server. Stay Safe & Happy.  
> 

The New Year’s Resolution Mandate. The name was pretentious as hell and Hermione loathed every syllable. The war had been over for five years and this was the Ministry’s latest sad attempt to boost public moral. As if everyone should have already forgotten the utter misery and loss they’d suffered through. The worst part about their latest idiotic gambit, was that they’d made it mandatory. There was even a bloody fine for anyone who failed to participate.

Poxy bureaucrats. She’d always found the idea of resolutions silly, why would one made on January 1st mean anything more than one made on May 3rd or August 10th? It was arbitrary, pointless, and smacked of a certain lack of creativity in her opinion. Not that they’d asked for her opinion. More’s the shame, she’d have enjoyed telling Kingsley in vivid detail what a completely moronic idea this was.

It was due in a few days and there was only one thing she really wanted. Writing it on a piece of paper and sending it into the Ministry was problematic at best. It wasn’t solely about her, and she knew **_his_** feelings on the subject. They’d argued about it at length a few months ago. She was tired of hiding their relationship, and the reasons for subterfuge faded with every week that ticked by. She was no longer a teenager, or his student. She had a career she was passionate about and enjoyed. Hermione had become a force in her own right, and not just as part of the ‘Golden Trio’. She was still friends with Harry and Ron, but they all had very different lives now. Their days of being joined at the hip had, thankfully, passed.

Ron was an Auror, and happy to be working for the Ministry. Harry had become a politician, which had shocked her a little in the moment, but it shouldn’t have. The shimmer of Slytherin green he’d always had hiding under the Gryffindor crimson and gold had been exposed and polished bright by the war. He was Lord Potter now, and was learning to use his fame as a weapon to push reforms and laws that would benefit their community. She was embarrassingly proud of him.

Hermione had thrown herself back into school after the war, and finished two masteries in the time it took most people to complete one. She held a Mastery in Charms and Ancient Runes. After she’d been awarded her second Mastery, Minerva had offered her a position at Hogwarts. That had thrown her back into the orbit of Severus Snape. Gravity and his intense black eyes had done the rest.

Hermione sighed and tossed her quill down. Severus. What she wanted, what she really needed, was for them to stop hiding their relationship.

_I resolve to tell my partner that I want to make our relationship public. ~ Hermione Granger._

It was both concise and suitably vague. It didn’t commit to making their relationship public, she would never do that to him, but it was time to stop hedging and be honest with him. She felt like a shameful secret, and she didn’t like it. If that was all she was ever going to be to him, then maybe it was time to end things. Her heart broke a little even thinking that, but she prayed it wouldn’t come to that.

o.o.O.o.o

It was New Year’s Day and the Daily Prophet was releasing a special edition. The blasted Ministry was publishing their resolutions…BY NAME…as some sort of publicity stunt. He was eternally grateful Potter had given him advance notice of that little gem of information. It made his decision easier. Hermione was still sleeping in the bedroom, and he carefully folded the paper and laid it over the breakfast tray he’d prepared.

They were staying at his cottage in Wales. After the war, in light of all the testimony that came out, he’d been pardoned for his many crimes. Acts committed under the duress of an Unbreakable Vow were immune from prosecution. Thankfully. Everything else had been ‘forgiven’ at least legally. In reality, he’d had no choice other than return to Hogwarts. Someone had burned his home in Spinner’s End to the ground, and he’d used all of his savings to buy this place. Isolation and protection was costly. Employment opportunities for one of the most hated men in Britain had been…scarce. Minerva’s offer to return had been reluctantly accepted. She’d allowed him to be grouchy about it and set high-handed conditions…but he knew she was aware that he’d been grateful for it.

He was once again Head of Slytherin, Potions Master, and Deputy Headmaster. Parents had grumbled, but Minerva had assured them that he was some shining bastion of self-sacrifice, or something equally ridiculous. He half-wondered if she’d _confunded_ the lot of them. Whatever her methods, he was back at Hogwarts and finally able to teach the way he’d always wanted to. Classes were done in single House groups, removing the temptation of sabotage, and it allowed him to actually teach rather than waste time trying to just keep them from blowing each other up. He wouldn’t say that he was enjoying teaching, but he hated it slightly less than he had before the war. Very slightly.

Hermione had been…unexpected.

He paused in the doorway and watched as the light painted her chestnut curls with highlights of gold. She’d emerged from the war harder, more focused than the girl he remembered teaching. She’d passed her exams with record scores, and in quick succession completed a Mastery in Ancient Runes under Mauritan Nigelan in Prague. The old goat was a legend in his field, but notorious for being hard on his apprentices. Not skipping a beat, she’d returned to Britain to complete her Charms Mastery under Fillius.

He knew Flitwick had been relieved to have her finish her master and replace him. He’d been wanting to retire for the better part of the last decade, but hadn’t wanted to leave the school in a lurch. He was now enjoying the weather in Spain, and Hermione was now the Charms Mistress. He’d never meant to get involved with her, but their debates over magical theory had been…invigorating. He’d kissed her that first time to shut her up and end an argument he’d been rapidly losing. She was infuriating, and he loved it.

They’d been together for a year and a half now, and he knew the secrecy had been wearing hard on her. He hadn’t wanted to expose her to public ridicule, especially at first before she’d even finished her study with Fillius. He knew the Guild would have held it against her. Then she’d been finding her feet as a teacher for one of the core classes at Hogwarts, and he remembered how difficult that could be. Then…well, anything after that had been pure cowardice on his part. He was afraid that their relationship couldn’t withstand the light of day. That she’d finally see that he was too old and too damaged for someone like her. But it was time.

“Hermione?” he said as he approached the bed. Her eyes opened slowly, lazy with sleep.

“Mmm, morning,” she muttered and yawned, sitting up. “You made me breakfast?” She smiled warmly at him, and Severus’ heart swelled. He loved her, and he hoped this had been the right thing to do.

“I did.” He settled the tray over her lap and sat on the edge of the bed as she saw the paper. He was prepared for any outcome, tears or anger. He waited nervously for her reaction.

o.o.O.o.o

** Severus Snape’s Shocking Resolution **

** Will She Say Yes? **

****

Hermione nearly dropped the paper. There was a beautiful photograph from last year’s Yule Ball. Minerva had decided to make it an annual thing at Hogwarts after the war. She’d never known anyone had taken this picture of her and Severus. They were standing in front of one of the Christmas trees, enchanted snow falling around them. She remembered that moment, they’d been discussing how ridiculous the new Defence instructor looked dancing with Minerva, but the humour made both their eyes sparkle as though they were discussing something more intimate. Severus had looked particularly handsome that night, at least to her. She didn’t bother reading the article, she looked up at him.

“Do you have a question to ask me, Master Snape?” Hermione asked, her heart hammering in her chest as she looked at him.

“I do indeed, Master Granger.” His lips quirked with amusement at her formal phrasing. “Would you do me the very great honour of becoming my wife? I believe that should be a public enough acknowledgement of our relationship, even by your standards.”

Hermione felt tears filling her eyes as he pulled a small ring box out of his pocket and opened it. It was a platinum band and the stone at the center of the setting made her breath catch. It was a black opal, flashes of dark green, blue, red, and gold shimmered in its depths. They seemed to rise out of the dark gem and it was ringed with white diamonds. It was beautiful, but more than that…she could see them in that unique gemstone. They had risen up from the darkness of the war and found each other. She nodded, the words sticking in her throat…taken by surprise by his very grand gesture. For a man who loathed the press and treasured his privacy, he had thrown that all aside…for her.

“Yes, I will marry you.” Hermione finally forced the words out. Severus slid the ring over her finger and lifted her hand to his lips, kissing it with a reverence that nearly shattered her heart. She realized, as the relief seemed to hit Severus, that he’d expected a no. “I love you, Severus.”

“You’ve never said it before.” He kept her hand pressed to his cheek.

“I was afraid that you wouldn’t want to hear it.” Hermione felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. “That you’d think I was being silly or…”

“Never,” he answered and released her hand. “It’s been a very long time since anyone has wanted to be with me, for me. I kept looking for some angle, for a reason that you kept coming back. I imagined everything, except the real reason.” With the softest caress, he reached over and brushed his fingers against her face. “I love you, I may not be the best at saying it, but I will try to show it.”

Hermione leaned into his hand and smiled. “Well…I guess my resolution is now somewhat silly.” She laughed a bit.

“Oh?” He lifted his eyebrows.

“I was going to tell you that I wanted to stop hiding this…us.” She swallowed and blinked back the happy tears gathering in her eyes. “The front page of the Prophet certainly is public.”

“I know how you feel about them, but it seemed the best way to be certain you couldn’t easily say no.” His dark eyes glittered.

“Slytherins…” She laughed then and shook her head. “So, how long before the avalanche of owls descend on us?” It was said in a joking tone, but she knew that it was likely to be exactly that. Everyone they knew would certainly have their opinions, not all of them were likely to be mild. She was conservatively estimating at least twenty percent as howlers.

“I give it an hour. Potter at least will need twenty minutes to read the article, there are some large words in it.” He chuckled as she gave him a dark look. “Then there’s the necessary delay for shock and denial, and then the owls will need to fly here.”

“Planning on ignoring them all?” Hermione grabbed a scone off the plate. They were light and fluffy. Severus had many faults, but the man was a genius in the kitchen. These were absolutely sinful. He’d even provided a little dish of his homemade raspberry jam and some clotted cream.

“I put out a large bowl of owl treats, they can drop their letter and go.” He took her hand again. “Minerva can reach me here if there’s a real emergency, but I’ve told her that barring a resounding no…we wouldn’t be back until the start of term. I hope that suits you?”

“Very much.” Hermione turned her hand up and slid her fingers between his. “For a few days…everyone can just hang in suspense. Can you put the tray away? I’m suddenly not that hungry.”

Severus sent it floating back out to the kitchen and she used her grip on his hand to pull him down so she could claim a kiss. The Prophet and all their friends could speculate for the next few days, for now she wanted him all to herself.

It might have been an utterly asinine idea, perhaps the Ministry had finally done something right. Not that she’d ever tell them that. 


End file.
